Firecreek is a 1968movie directed by Vincent McEveety and starring
James Stewart and Henry Fonda in his second role as an antagonist that year.
The film is similar to High Noon in that it features an entire town refusing to help
a peace officer against outlaws, showing no backbone.
Stewart plays an unlikely hero, forced into action when his conscience will not permit evil to continue.
Stewart and Fonda's first film together had been the musical comedy On Our Merry Way
two decades earlier, and they made The Cheyenne Social Club two years after Firecreek.
They had also both appeared in How the West Was Won
but had no scenes together despite playing best friends.
Features other Duke's 'Pals' besides the two stars,
namely Jay C. Flippen, Jack Elam and John Qualen
User Review
QuoteA slow burner, but a satisfying character study
28 November 2006 | by TrevorAclea (London, England)
Firecreek probably wouldn't stand a chance in today's market - it's a film dominated by old men with a script that's a very slow burner. Indeed, it's not until the superb last half hour that the film really starts punching its weight. For much of the film, Henry Fonda's gang of hired guns who drift into the one-dog town of Firecreek are more annoyance than genuine threat, but with each incident defused only by a display of anything-for-a-quiet life weakness from the townsfolk and James Stewart's part-time sheriff, violence is inevitable. What is surprising are the character revelations en route: every single character who drifts into this waste basket for lost souls is a wholly inadequate human being in one way or another. Fonda is quietly impressive as a man who can only maintain the authority he needs to stop him from being a nobody by giving in to his gang's wishes to prevent them replacing him. Stewart at first seems too old for the part, but as the film progresses his casting makes more and more sense: as Dean Jagger points out in the film's best scene, this is a town of losers, people who'll settle for what nobody else wants because they know no-one will challenge them for it. Or as Gary Lockwood's young gun puts it, "Ain't nothing' in this town five dollars won't fix." Surprisingly good, and much better directed by Vincent McEveety than you'd expect from a director who spent most of his career commuting between Disney comedies and TV shows.